Category archive: 365 Blog

Day 84: What’s the best way to Tweet? Following yesterday’s conversation, I wanted to delve more into some of these social media tools. I did discuss social media on Day(s) 7, 8, 9. Strangely as I was typing this my good friends at Golden Shovel posted a blog about Twitter, http://blog.goldenshovelagency.com/2013/08/27/can-twitter-trends-be-useful-for-economic-developers/ This is a nice…

Day 83: Stay connected: In most professions it is extremely important to stay connected to your customers/clients, peers, friends and family. It is my observation that most people don’t reach out very often. Or maybe it is just me and no one wants to contact me, which could very well be the case! But with…

Day 82: Rankings This past week one of our clients made the top 25 Best Places to Live as determined by CNN/Money. Great news!. It is nice to be recognized. If your community should get s great designation, take full advantage. Duh! you say. All right I can’t be full wisdom every day! Some rankings…

Day 81: Raising money is tough. It doesn’t have to be. Now the process to successfully raise money is hard work, but not tough. If your organization is doing everything right, raising money is actually a breeze. We have one client that exceeds their fundraising goals every time they go out for an ask because…

Day 80: How can I do a better job? “But I am doing a great job” you say. I’m sure you are. But we can always do better. If you are new to this business, you probably are doing a great job because you want to learn. The average person stops wanting to learn at…

Day 79: Why does everyone chase a data center? Three of our recent clients have been in the running for several of the big data centers that have been looking around. They have landed some of them and we have learned from the experience. They don’t typically employ a lot of people. Most states have…

Day 78: Common goals. Okay, several of my ramblings have been about this topic. But I pull from real life situations every day when I write these, and I had one recently that is a great example. A local economic development person has developed key contacts with some data center companies over the years. Through…

Day 77: What makes a utility a great economic development partner? Since I was the Director of Economic Development for a utility company for fifteen years, I think I might know a little about this. In this months issue of Site Selection Magazine they picked the best utilities in economic development, http://www.siteselection.com/issues/2013/sep/top-utilities.cfm It appears the…

Day 76: Where do I find good volunteers? It is getting harder and harder to find people that are committed to volunteering. We all know there are many reasons; working longer and harder; both spouses work outside the home; too much information is being thrown at us every day. But in the economic development and…

Day 75: How do we get everyone to work together? I have absolutely no idea! If I did I wouldn’t be writing a blog every day that is not being read by anyone. (Ok, I know at least a couple people are reading it. Love you Mom!) It is unfortunate but someone is always unhappy…

The business of economic development encompasses a broad range of strategies including business retention and attraction, entrepreneurship, workforce development and the attraction of talent, tourism, place branding and marketing, product development, and community planning to enhance the quality of place. The bottom line - to generate new wealth and growth.